Skandapurana 5.186

Sūta said: / “When the fourth day arrived in the course of that sacrifice, / the sacrificial rite was thereupon commenced by the officiating priests, // 1

including the drinking of soma and the immolation of the animal. / Taking the rectum of the sacrificial animal, the assistant priest held it up // 2

in an isolated spot in the midst of the assembly hall for the sake of the oblation, O best of twice-borns. / While that state of intense bustle was taking place, a certain brahmin arrived.” // 3

A young man entered there, eager to eat meat. / Then, seeing the entrails of the sacrificial beast, he eagerly ate them.

At that moment, the pratiprasthātṛ priest arrived beside him. / Seeing him eating, he then cursed him:

“Fie, fie, evildoer! The entrails that were kept for the sake of the oblation / have been defiled by you out of greed, creating an obstacle to the sacrifice!

I certainly cannot offer an oblation now with what is leftover from eating! / This deed that you have performed is the conduct of rākṣasas.

Therefore, by my word, become a rākṣasa without delay!”

At that very moment, his hair indeed stood erect; / he became red-eyed, with peg-shaped ears, black-toothed, and exceedingly terrifying,

with a hanging lower lip, a frightfully gaping mouth, devoid of flesh and fat, / reduced to mere skin, bone, and sinew, possessing the very form of Cāmuṇḍā.

Now he was a sage named Viśvāvasu, the son of Pulastya, / who had come for the sake of eating meat consecrated by mantras.

He was a knower of the truth of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, and the grandson of the Supreme Lord [Brahmā]. / Seeing him in the form of a rākṣasa, the brahmins trembled on all sides.

Others chanted hymns that slay rākṣasas; / some sought refuge in Viṣṇu, others in Rudra,

and others fled for protection to the Grandfather [Brahmā] and to Gāyatrī, / crying out, “Protect us, protect us!”, their minds terrified with fear.

He too, seeing himself reduced to the state of a rākṣasa, O brahmins, / wretched, with eyes full of tears, rushed to the Grandfather.

Having bowed, he then spoke these words to him with folded hands:

“I am your grandson, O Lord of the gods, a brahmin and the son of Pulastya. / Today I have been reduced to the state of a rākṣasa out of wrath by the priest, O Lord!

Through greed of the tongue, O Lord of the gods, not knowing, / the entrails of the sacrificial beast that were intended for the oblation were eaten by me, O god.

Therefore, show mercy upon my body so that I may regain human state! / Let an expedient be devised so that this state of a rākṣasa may depart.”

Hearing his speech, the Grandfather took pity / and spoke these conciliatory words to the pratiprasthātṛ priest:

“This boy is my grandson, and he does not know what ought and ought not to be done. / Therefore, remove his rākṣasa condition, O best of brahmins!”

Hearing that, the sage said: “In your sacrifice, O god, / a ritual expiation has been occasioned by this one defiling the entrails, O Lord.

Therefore, he was cursed by me as a maker of obstacles to my sacrifice. / In no way shall I take away his rākṣasa state!

Even in jest, an untrue word has never been spoken by me.”

Brahmā said: / “I shall perform an expiation for the successful completion of this sacrifice, / having performed the oblation according to rule and given the prescribed dakṣiṇā of a cow. / Remove his rākṣasa condition at my word!”

He said: “If fire should become cold, or if the moon should become hot-rayed, / only then could the word spoken by me turn out otherwise, O great-grandfather!”

Hearing his statement and realizing it was indeed irrevocable, / Brahmā then spoke to Viśvāvasu who was in the form of a rākṣasa:

“Child, remain for now in this form, and obey my word. / I shall grant you that by which you obtain an unsurpassed abode.

Residing in the western part of this city of Camatkārapura, / there are other rākṣasas stationed there within proper bounds.

Rākṣasas in Laṅkā who desire a good destination here, / having arrived at that place, perform austerities, observing good vows.

Assume sovereignty there, remaining intent on the welfare of the Nāgaras. / There are many rākṣasas, kūṣmāṇḍas, and piśācas [there].

Whatever other rākṣasas have resorted to a wicked disposition / and go there, they restrain them all instantly.

Bhūtas, pretas, piśācas, and especially kūṣmāṇḍas, / upon seeing a N競争agara in front of them, flee far away out of fear of him.

Therefore go there, son, and become the overlord of them all! / The kingdom over the rākṣasas has now been given to you by me.”

The rākṣasa said: / “When I am established in this way in lordship over the rākṣasas, O Grandfather, / tell me, what is to be eaten by me there, and what is to be given to them?

For food must be provided by a king to his servants, O Lord; / therefore tell me that, O Lord of the gods, taking pity on me.

A king who does not maintain his group of servants / goes to the Raurava hell; for so it has been heard by me.”

Brahmā said: / “Whatever ancestral offering is devoid of sacrificial gifts, and lacking sesamum and darbha grass, / all that is given to you by me, even if it be performed at an excellent tīrtha.

Whatever ancestral offering a pig, or a menstruating woman, / or a dog, or a donkey should look upon, all that shall belong to you.

Whatever ancestral offering is devoid of rules, or performed with rootless darbha grass, / or with grass longer than a span, all that shall belong to you.

An ancestral offering in which sesamum, or food cooked in oil, / or bearded grain is not given, that ancestral offering shall belong to you.

Whatever ancestral offering is performed by unbathed persons, or by those with unwashed garments, / or by those smeared with oil, all that shall belong to you.

Or whatever [ancestral offering] a keeper of buffaloes eats, or one with white leprosy, or one with deformed nails, / or whatever brahmin suffering from leprosy eats, that ancestral offering shall belong to you.

Or whatever [ancestral offering] one with a deficient limb eats, or one with a redundant limb, or a censured man, / or one seized by a severe disease, or a thief, or a usurer eats, that ancestral offering shall belong to you.

Whatever a black-toothed man eats, or whatever the husband of a śūdra woman eats, / or whatever a naked man eats, that ancestral offering shall belong to you.

Whatever sacrifice is devoid of priestly fees, and whatever is performed by impure persons, / or devoid of celibacy, the fruit of that shall belong to you.”

The śrāddha or sacrifice in which a guest who arrives at the end of the vaiśvadeva offering is not honoured—all that shall be yours. / 47

Where the performer of the śrāddha does not observe silence after the invocation, / or the brahmin who eats does not, that śrāddha shall be yours. / 48

And whatever śrāddha a man performs using earthenware vessels, / or that which is in broken vessels—all that shall be yours. / 49

Where visible salt [is served] or butter-milk is spoiled, / and where jasmine flowers are offered—all that shall be yours. / 50

Whether the patron or the twice-born priest is devoid of celibacy, / that śrāddha, bereft of the three vessels, has been given to you by me. / 51

And where food is served on an iron vessel, / that śrāddha has been given to you by me, and whatever other [faulty rite] is ruined. / 52

Whatever is offered or poured into the fire at night through mantra and ritual, / other than during the saṃkrānti and somaparvan days, is vile [and yours]. / 53

Having spoken thus, Brahmā, the grandfather of the worlds, immediately fell silent; / and that rākṣasa also obtained a rākṣasa’s place right there. / 54

Thus ends the one hundred and eighty-seventh chapter, entitled 'Description of the Śrāddha Pertaining to the Rākṣasa', in the Māhātmya of Hāṭakeśvara Kṣetra, in the sixth [section], Nāgarakhaṇḍa, of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses]. / 187